The department provides research opportunities for students and learners from a wide range of disciplines.

Dr. Michael Dulin, vice chairman and director of research in the department, created the Mecklenburg Area Partnership for Primary Care Research (MAPPR) research network.

The network brings together primary care providers and community members to better understand disparities in healthcare outcomes. The network has received funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Duke Endowment, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, NC TraCs, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Dr. Dulin is the primary investigator for two lead studies from this network designed to examine access and utilization of health services by Latino immigrants. This work uses geographic information systems and principles of community-based participatory research to look at health services utilization patterns - particularly access to primary care and inappropriate use of emergency services for conditions that could be treated in a primary care setting. This led to the development of a NIH R24 grant designed to build partnerships between community members and researchers.

Dr. Hazel Tapp is the primary investigator on an innovative project, funded by the UNCC/CMC collaborative grants program, to evaluate five primary care models for underserved community members. This project has engaged with providers across the region to identify best practices and share these ideas with all participants.

Finally, in a study designed to look at the impact of pre-participation screening for adolescents involved in sports, Dr. David Price has received research funding from the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine to study the impact of screening on young athletes. This ongoing collaborative program has screened hundreds of athletes from across the community.